No Leniency for Employee Fired for Repeated Anti-Semitic Facebook Posts

Longstanding service is generally grounds for leniency, especially for misconduct that occurs away from work and stems from a personality disorder. But the arbitrator in this case found that the firing of the university employee for repeatedly posting anti-Semitic comments on Facebook was justified. This wasn’t an isolated incident but a longstanding problem for which the employee had been warned and punished. But he kept on with his offensive writings and publicly criticized the university for disciplining him. So, the university had good reason to conclude that further progressive discipline would be futile and cut ties instead [York University Staff Association v York University, 2018 CanLII 41354 (ON LA), May 11, 2018].